What happens if a cleric breaks his vows of sexual abstinence? What happens if the cleric in question does so repeatedly with other men of his vocation? Eleventh-century theologian Peter Damian provides a response.
What happens if an author uses metaphor as a metaphor signifying and excoriating male same-sex relations, yet does so in a text showing an exuberant and unabashed orientation towards metaphorical language? Is the author in question rhetorically perpetrating precisely the so-called affront to nature he grammatically denounces? Twelfth-century poet Alain de Lille enacts an ambiguously enigmatic response.
General Introduction
â1âPeter Damian, The Book of Gomorrah
â2âAlain de Lille, The Plaint of Nature
â3âImportance to Medieval Studies
â4âExisting Translations
â5âApproach to Translation, Notes, and Sources
â6âTerminology
Part 1: Peter Damian, The Book of Gomorrah (Liber Gomorrhianus)
Peter Damian: Life
âCritical Commentary
âText
Part 2: Alain de Lille, The Plaint of Nature (De planctu Naturae)
Alain de Lille: Life
âCritical Commentary
âText
Bibliography Index
Undergraduate and graduate students in medieval literature and culture, specialists in eleventh- and twelfth-century sexual relations.